A Shot Heard Round the Hospital
by ChandaK562
Summary: A patient driven crazy by Stegman goes insane and hunts him with a gun. Only Lona ends up in his path.
1. chapter 1

The plot bunnies got me once more. Such evil, evil things they are. Oh,  
and does anyone think that it might not bode well for the characters'  
future health that the bunnies forced me to borrow a book called Body Trauma from the library?  
  
Blondi poked his head out from around the corner of the corridor for a moment before ducking back. "She's coming." He murmured to the large anteater standing behind him snickering softly. The dog shook his head at that. It was a good thing that people couldn't see his friend unless the anteater wanted to be seen. With that snickering, their plan would be blown in minutes if he could be seen and heard.  
  
Antubis poked his head around the corner now, watching Brenda's progress down the hallway with the box from the local bakery. It was Stegman's birthday that day and Brenda had organized a party for him. Of course, there was the fact that no other doctor in the hospital liked Steg so the party appeared that it would be an exclusive one. The anteater and the dog weren't concerned about that though. Their attention was focused on the bakery box and the cake within. They were determined to somehow get their paws on it and wish Steg many unhappy returns on his birthday.  
  
"Okay, you know what you have to do." Blondi said as Brenda drew closer. Oh, this was the perfect plan, the same one that had netted them ten hospital lunches once, and not the bad stuff that Dr. James fed people occassionally to poison them and bump up revenue.  
  
As Brenda approached, Antubis stepped into her path. People might not be able to see him but they could definately feel him if they walked though his body and if he twitched his tail just right.... As Brenda's legs vanished into the area occupied by the anteater's body she shivered,  
then suddenly tripped as Antubis twitched his tail. The cake went flying to the floor as the box slid out of Brenda's grasp, where a waiting Blondi caught it and drug it away to some better eating location.  
  
'You know, you really could do better than Stegman,' Antubis said with a critical look at Brenda as he started down the hall after his friend. 'Well, maybe not really better but possibly at least someone who could fake being better.' Honestly, this one had to be mentally deranged to want Stegman for a lover. Just the thought of the hospital's nutty doctor naked in bed gave the anteater shivers through his fur coat.  
  
A bit later, Antubis and Blondi were safely ensconced under Otto's security desk, frosting in both of their fur coats as they licked the bottom of the bakery box to get the last crumbs.  
  
As Antubis finished off his part of the crumb licking, he looked up at the pictures on the security monitors. Otto was off helping Bobby Druse with something and the anteater thought it would be the perfect time to do a little looking around the hospital without wear and tear on his paws.  
'So, what channels do you get on these?' he asked Blondi as he nudged a button on closest monitor with his snout.  
  
'Try tunning in Camera 5." Blondi said with a snicker as he looked uo at his friend. He felt too full to move any more than that. "It's in the Female Physicians Shower. Dr. James put it in just last month."  
  
The anteater reached out, nudging the monitor further. 'Does Otto watch that one very much?' He asked curiously.  
  
"No, he would like to live a bit longer. Dr. James must have been having a mental lapse day when he put that one in." Blondi snickered slightly at the thought of Dr. James and that camera. If any of the female physicians found out about it, they would probably poke it so far down Dr.  
James that he would never have to worry about having a colonoscopy again.  
  
Antubis continued to flick through the various monitors searching for the right one. As he flipped, he shook his head as various nutty staff members and patients wandered across the screen. Suddenly, something, a small detain caught his attention and he motioned for the dog to come closer. 'Is that...'  
  
Blondi'a eyes widened as much as dogs' eyes could. He had seen plenty of nutty things on the security monitors before but this was new.  
"He has a gun!" The dog looked frantically around the room for some human who could help but there was no one. What were they going to do? There was an insane patient with a gun on the loose in Kingdom Hospital.  
  
'Let's go!' Antubis wasn't one to wait for humans. He was sure that between him and Blondi they could handle one insane patient by themselves. Now if they could just reach him before he decided to start firing that thing! The two creatures padded off down the hallway as fast as they could go, vanishing into the wall. If they took a shortcut through the Old Kingdom, they might be able to get there in time before someone could get hurt! 


	2. chapter 2

Mary was sitting on Mona's bed, rocking in time with her friend's swaying. She saddly sighed as she watched Mona. She wished the other little girl would snap out of whatever thing she was lost in. It would be so nice to have someone else that she could play with.  
  
"Today's Dr. Stegman's birthday." Mary said softly. "Did you know that? Dr. Brenda bought him a cake. I think Antubis and Blondi are going to statch it, though. Would you like to go and watch them, maybe?" Mary extended her hand, hoping for the other girl to reach out and take it. She had been able to reach Peter and help him. She was sure that she could reach Mona too if she could just figure out how.  
  
Suddenly, Mary stopped, sitting completely still, her head turning slowly towards the door. "Stay right there, Mona. There's something out there, something bad." She stood, slipping off the bed and creeping to the door, peering out cautiously. Paul had a vague idea that there was something unusual about Mona and Mary was afraid that he might have finally decided to do something about the other little girl.  
  
No, no Paul in the hallway, though. Just Dr. Lona taking a shortcut with her head buried in a report. Mary watched her for a moment,  
shaking her head softly. She really ought to be careful or she would end up walking into a wall. Suddenly the little girl's eyes were drawn down the hallway behind Lona to a man in a hospital gown, a man holding a....  
  
Witha muffled shriek, Mary disappeared back into the room once more. "Mona, come on." She reached out and grabbed her friend's hand,  
leading the other girl over to the closet and opening it. "You go in here and stay very quiet until I come back for you, okay? There's a very bad man out there. Stay quiet so he doesn't find you." Mary was barely able to surpress a shiver as she closed the door behind her friend. Why would someone be in Kingdom Hospital with a gun?  
  
Elmer stepped off the elevator onto the seventh floor thinking of nothing else but another dull day of following his father around doing rounds as soon as his dad got back from lunch. A moment later, his face brightened as he spotted Lona coming down the hallway. He shook his head slightly as he saw her studying the report in her hands. Honestly, Lona worked way, way too hard. She needed to take some time and have a bit of fun occassionally. If she would only give him a chance, he knew that he could show her how to have a nice time.  
  
Elmer had just started to call out Lona's name as he headed down the hallway towards her when he spotted the man coming towards Lona. His eyes widened as he saw what was in the man's hand, a gun, his finger already on the trigger as he raised it and pointed it at Lona.  
  
There wasn't time to scream her name, to yell at her to get down.  
Any sudden noise now could make the man shoot or Lona to turn, putting even more of her body in danger of being hit by one of the deadly bullets.  
Elmer crossed the short distance between himself and Lona faster than he would have thought possible, slamming into her and sending her crashing to the ground just as there were two loud pops.  
  
As Lona hit the floor, the breath was knocked out of her and sheay there dazed foeral moment, trying to figure out what happened before realizing that Elmer had pushed her down for some stupid reason.  
  
"Elmer, if you think that this will make me like you then you are even more deluded than I..." Lona started yelling as she tried to pull herself to her feet only to stop, her eyes widening in shock as a gun was shoved into her face.  
  
"Where's Stegman!" the patient demanded.  
  
Stegman. Oh, great. Stegman had gone out for lunch with Brenda.  
Somehow she didn't think that this guy would agree to wait quietly for him to return, though. Lona started to tremble slightly as she stared down the barrel of the gun, the shaking increasing until she couldn't speak even if she had wanted too, couldn't do anything but watch silently as the man's finger's started to pull back on the trigger.  
  
Suddenly something crashed into the man and he went flying away from her, the gun skidding out of his hand.... No, the gun was still in his hand. She realized with a shake of her head. Only his hand didn't seem to be attached to his arm anymore and.... She shook her head trying to clear it, to make this entire situation go away. It was still there though. The man laying on the floor with Otto's dog on top of him, teeth bared and growling, the hand with the gun several feet away. Elmer....  
  
"Elmer!" Lona screamed his named as she suddenly took in that little detail, frantically crawling across the hallway to his side. He was laying there on his back, not moving, his eyes closed. There was blood on his head and more on the front of his lab coat, more blood slowly forming a widening pool around him with each passing moment that Lona stared at him in shock. "Elmer!" 


	3. chapter 3

Otto looked around the security desk for Blondi as he hurried back to his post. He liked Bobby's mother and was honestly glad to help her out with her seances. He just hoped that no one had noticed that he was gone,  
though.  
  
"Blondi?" He called as he looked under the desk for the dog,  
frowning when he spotted the empty cake box? Now where did that thing come from? He had just picked it up to throw it into the trash, frowning slightly at several long redish brown hairs caught on the cardboard when Dr. Hook came down the hall.  
  
"Hey, Otto," Hook said as he glanced at the cake box. "Someone having a party?"  
  
Otto shrugged. He had a feeling that if someone was having a party, they probably weren't now. "Have you seen Blondi anywhere?" he asked as he tossed the cake box into the trash and poked it down where it wouldn't be seen easily.  
  
"No, but...." Suddenly Hook stopped as he spotted something on one of Otto's monitors. He stepped around Otto, staring intently at the scene currently playing out on the screen. "Otto...."  
  
"Oh, my...." Otto and Hook stared helplessly as the man raised the gun, aiming at Lona's back. Then suddenly everything seemed to be moving in both slow and fast motion as Elmer appeared out of nowhere, knocking Lona to the ground just as the gun discharged twice, sending the young doctor crashing to the floor as well.  
  
"Otto, get the police here now!" Hook yelled as he raced for the elevator. He just hoped that he wouldn't be too late.  
  
"Elmer?" Lona reached out, frantically feeling for a pulse and breathing, barely able to fight down a sob at the sight of the blood, so much blood, too much blood. Her fingers slipped on his neck, the blood making it impossible for her to find a pulse.  
  
"Elmer?" She leaned over him, pressing an ear carefully against his chest, not noticing her hair becoming wet with his blood as she did so.  
A moment later, she felt a faint surge of relief as she heard his heart slowly beating. There was still so much blood though and his head....  
  
'Calm down, Lona. Pull yourself together.' She told herself sternly as she shrugged off her lab coat, balling it up and pressing it against the spreading bloodstain on his chest, cringing when he let out a soft moan as she pushed down on the wound. "Elmer, if you can hear me,  
it's going to be okay, I promise,' she said softly as she hesitently reached out, gently touching his head, trying to figure out how to put pressure on the wound in a way that wouldn't do more damage if the bullet had.... She shook her head frantically, not even wanting to think of the damage that bullet could have done to Elmer's brain if.....  
  
"Hey! I need some help here!" She yelled as she looked up for a moment, rage on her face when she noticed the man who had shot Elmer laying only feet away with Blondi sitting on top of him, fangs bared. "Good boy,  
Blondi. Good dog!" Although Lona was a doctor and she knew she shouldn't feel this way, she hoped deep down that the man would bleed to death after what he did to Elmer, after how.... She bit her lip to keep from breaking down into sobs. "Someone help me!"  
  
Suddenly Lona felt a small hand on her shoulder and looked up to find Mona Klingerman standing there, a towel in her outstretched hand and another little girl standing beside her.  
  
Lona took the towel from the child, not even stopping to notice the strangeness of Mona being there or how oddly the other little girl was dressed as she pressed the towel to Elmer's head with one hand while trying to keep the pressure on his chest with the other. She felt tears starting to run down her cheeks as she looked down at him. His breathing was starting to become harsher, a rattle in his throat now that Lona feared might be an ominous harbinger.  
  
"Elmer, sweetie, you just hold on for me, okay?" She whispered as tears started to drop onto his deathly pale face. She wouldn't admit this,  
even to herself, but she was very afraid that even if help appeared at that moment, it might be too late to do anything to save him. "You never do anything small, do you, Elmer?" The bleeding was barely slowing and he was becoming paler, the life flowing out of him right in front of her. "It's always something either really bad or really good with you." She couldn't control her sobs now, knowing that nothing that she could do would help,  
that he was going to die and.... "Elmer, please, don't die on me!  
Please!"  
  
"Hey, twerp. Isn't it time for you to ring that bell for the loser, now?" Paul said with a smirk as he came strolling down the hallway towards Elmer and Lona.  
  
"No! It's not his time!" Mary cried, moving away from Mona and in front of Elmer to block Paul from getting to him. Okay, the urge to ring her bell and call Elmer's name was almost overpowering but she wasn't going to do it! As long as she didn't ring her bell, then maybe Elmer would be okay. "Go away, Paul. Antubis has already ripped one hand off today. Go away or he'll bite you too!"  
  
Just then the elevator doors came open and Hook came rushing out.  
With a frown, Paul stepped through the wall and vanished into the Old Kingdom once more. He would just have to get the loser later.  
  
"Oh, my...." Hook stopped for a minute, shock at seeing Elmer laying there with what looked like gallons of blood around him almost paralyzing him for a second before he continued forward and dropped down next to Lona, motioning for her to let him take over holding the pressure on Elmer's chest.  
  
Just as he took over, the other elevator opened, more doctors spilling out including Chris.  
  
"What happened?" She cried as she stared in shock for a moment before hurrying to lend what assistance she could.  
  
"He got shot at least twice," Hook said with a shake of his head as he surveyed the injuries and the amount of blood Elmer had lost.  
"Someone get a gurney in here now! We've got to get him to surgery!"  
  
Lona felt herself being nudged out of the way and back against the wall as the staff moved around Elmer. Suddenly Mona and here little friend were there again, one girl on either side of her, snuggling against her.  
As Lona looked over at Mona, something occured to her. "Stegman. Hook,  
don't let Stegman anywhere near Elmer! Promise me that you won't...." She cried out before collapsing in sobs once more.  
  
"We'll take care of him." Hook said in a reassuring tone as they finally got a gurney and got Elmer moved onto it. As they started for the elevator, Hook motioned for Chris. "Chris, keep an eye on Lona, okay?  
Elmer got shot pushing her out of the way." 


	4. chapter 4

"Lona?" Chris approached her friend slowly, taking sight of the situation, eyes widening slightly when it sank in that there was Mona Klingerman sitting beside Lona, leaning against her side as if trying to comfort her. Now how had.... She shook her head slowly. There would be time later to figure out what might be going on with little Mona. Maybe the results of Stegman's surgery on the girl had worn off? Chris reached out, wrapping her arms around her sobbing friend, paying no attention to the blood that was getting on her as well.  
  
"What happened here?" A cop said as he stepped off the elevator followed by several more officers and Otto. The cop looked around at the blood and the now severed hand. It seemed like there was always something odd going on at Kingdom Hospital. Good thing he had already warned his buddies not to take him there should he ever need medical treatment.  
  
"He came out of nowhere." Lona whispered as she raised her tear soaked face from Chris's shoulder for a moment. "Then Elmer knocked me down and there were these two loud pops." At this, she started to sob harder as it really sunk in what Elmer had done. He had saved her life and now..... No, he had to be okay! He just had to be!  
  
"What happened to his hand?" another cop asked as he stared down at the hand for a moment before turning his attention to another approaching group of doctors. "Hey, think you can do something about him?  
He bleeds to death and it's going to make the arrest a real toughie."  
  
"I think Blondi might have done that." Chris added although she couldn't see for the life of her how Otto's dog could have severed the hand that neatly. It looked like it had been bitten off clean in one bite.  
  
'Actually, Antubis did that.' Blondi moved off the nutcase's chest now, going over to join his friend in inspecting the hand. Maybe if they stuffed it into a vent for a few days they could get it smelling nice and ripe. Things were always more fun when they were in that condition.  
  
"Blondi, you got to play with a heart, you know." Mary said as she stood and moved over to the two animals. "You don't need a hand to play with too. Otto has an entire basket of toys for you downstairs."  
  
'And it's my hand anyway. I bit it off fair and square.' the anteater said as he scooped the hand up in his mouth and started down the hallway. 'Coming, Mary?'  
  
"I have to get Mona back to her room, first." Mary said with a shake of her head as she approached her friend once more. "Come on, Mona.  
Time to go." As she reached out a hand to lead her friend away, she leaned down and softly kissed Lona's forehead. "Elmer's going to be okay. I promise that I won't ring my bell for him."  
  
Lona sighed softly as she felt something brush against her forehead, a warm, safe feeling washing over her for a moment before fear crept in to replace it once more.  
  
"Come on, Lona. Let's go and get you cleaned up." Chris said gently as she extended a hand to help her friend to her feet.  
  
"Louis." Lona murmured as she stood, swaying back against the wall momentarily. "I have to tell...." How could she tell him though, knowing how the news would break Louis's heart, how Elmer was the only thing that he had left and now..... And he had been hurt saving her too. She wouldn't blame Louis if he hated her forever for that.  
  
"You can't tell Louis anything looking like you are." Chris said gently as she pointed to her friend's blood soaked clothes. "Let's get you cleaned up and then we can worry about what to tell Louis, okay?"  
  
Lona slowly nodded, her mind going gradually numb as she let Chris lead her down the hall to the elevators that would take them to the female physicians' showers. How could this have happened? How could in such a short amount of time, could Elmer have been left fighting for his life and.... Tears started to run down her cheeks once more, Chris embracing her again as she sobbed. He had to be okay. Lona couldn't imagine what life would be like without Elmer in it. 


	5. chapter 5

Lona slumped back in the chair she was occupying in the surgical waiting room as yet another person exited the OR but wasn't Hook with good news. She felt the sobs starting to well up once more as she looked over at Chris with a hopeless expression on her face. Shouldn't Hook have been out of there a long time ago, shouldn't someone have came to tell them something either way?  
  
"It's okay, Lona. I promise it's okay." Chris whispered as she wrapped her arms around her friend, holding her close to try and comfort her. "Hook's going to take good care of Elmer. He really likes him even if he can be a goof, remember? He's not going to let anything happen to him."  
  
"It's all my fault." Lona whispered, trying and failing to get her sobbing under control. "Why did he do it?" She looked over at Chris with despair and heartbreak apparent in her eyes. "I've never.... Why would he do that for me?"  
  
"He loves you." Chris cringed inside when her words caused Lona to break out into a fresh outburst of sobs. "Lona?"  
  
"Why would he love me? I never tried to...." She was sobbing almost hysterically now as she thought of how she had treated Elmer,  
refusing to take him seriously and yet using his affections for whenever she needed assistance with something. "He's so young. He deserves someone better, someone who...." She buried her hands in her face, no longer able to speak as she sobbed.  
  
Chris looked over towards the door as she held her friend, worry filling her for not only Elmer but for Lona as well. The way that she was taking it was bad to put things mildly. She had nearly fallen apart down in the showers when she had looked in a mirror and seen Elmer's blood covering her and now.... She knew that surgery would take awhile,  
especially considering the possible damage that Elmer might have suffered from the wound to his head but still, why hadn't someone came out to keep them updated? She couldn't even go back to check herself, not with Lona in her current hysterical condition.  
  
Just then Chris heard footsteps coming down the hallway and she looked up as Louis appeared.  
  
"What happened?" He demanded as he crossed the room. "Otto wouldn't tell me when he tracked me down. He just said something about Elmer having an accident." He looked at Lona nervously, concern for his son mounting as he noticed her hysterical condition. Why would Lona be this freaked considering how much she always said that Elmer annoyed her unless things were bad, very bad. "What happened," he demanded once more.  
  
Lona let out a soft whimper before she started to speak. She knew that Louis was going to hate her forever for this but didn't he deserve to know the truth, to know who was to blame for him losing a second child?  
"It's my fault, all my fault." She whispered.  
  
"What?" Louis looked at Lona in shock and a bit of anger. What did she mean that it was her fault? Had Elmer been hurt helping her with one of her experiments or....  
  
"Louis, it isn't Lona's fault." Chris said firmly as she hugged her friend closer, hoping to prevent her from saying more. "If anyone's to blame here, it's Stegman."  
  
"What happened?" Louis asked as he looked at Chris. Stegman,  
Lona. At the moment he didn't care who was responsible for his son being hurt. He just wanted to know what happened and then find out that his boy was going to be just fine.  
  
"One of Stegman's patients snapped. Apparently our resident butcher botched another surgery." Chris said with a slow shake of her head at the thought of Stegman. "Somehow the guy got his hands on a gun and went looking for Steg. The only problem was that he ran across Lona first.  
Elmer must have seen him and knocked her down just as he fired the gun.  
He saved her life."  
  
Shot? His son had been shot? In his wildest imaginings Louis had never thought of something like that happening. And Lona.... He knew it was wrong but he couldn't even look at her, not knowing that his only child had been shot in her place, might be.... "How bad?" he whispered.  
  
"Hook's got him in surgery right now. I'm not really sure how bad it is. It was kind of hard to tell with everyone crowded in the hall."  
Chris frowned inside when she saw the look that Louis was giving Lona, like he was fighting not to yell at her, to heap blame on for what had happened to Elmer. Before Chris could say anything though, Hook was suddenly standing in the doorway.  
  
"How is he?" Louis demanded as he hurried over to Hook, Chris leading Lona at a slower pace. Louis tried to brace himself, fearing the worst, but he couldn't quite manage it. If the worst had happened, if his son was....  
  
"He's fine. I don't know how he did it but both of those bullets only grazed him. He did lose quiet a bit of blood, especially from the head wound but there's no major damage." Hook shook his head as he thought of it. He had honestly expected much worse when he had first seen the wounds but now he felt like laughing. Something like this was almost typical of the kind of things that usually happened to Elmer.  
  
"He's fine?" Louis repeated slowly, letting the words sink in.  
"When can I see him?" He didn't look at Lona as he spoke, deliberately tuning out her slowing sobs.  
  
"Right now if you want. He's still sedated from the surgery though so don't expect much in the way of conversation." Hook said with a soft laugh before looking at Chris and Lona. "Chris, do you want to bring her?"  
  
"Let me see if I can get her calmed down a bit first. Elmer will totally freak if he sees her like this." Chris said softly as she led her friend back to a seat. "Lona, honey, Hook said Elmer's going to be fine.  
It's okay. Do you think you can pull yourself together to go back and see him?"  
  
"I can't." Lona whispered between sobs. "It's my fault he got hurt. Louis doesn't want me there and when Elmer has a chance to think about it...."  
  
"Lona, Louis was freaked out. Once he calms down, he's going to realize that you're in no way, shape or form to blame for this. And as for Elmer, of course he's going to want you there. He loves you, Lona."  
  
"He shouldn't. Look at what happened to him." she whispered.  
  
"He's fine. Just a couple of grazes and probably a headache. You know Elmer. He'll be up and around in no time driving us crazy. Now come on. Please try to get a hold of yourself so you can go back and see him.  
I'm sure that Elmer would want you there when he wakes up." 


	6. chapter 6

"Chris?" Hook called quietly as he entered the surgical waiting room once more almost an hour later. He frowned when he heard the sound of soft sobbing and looked across the room to see Lona still sitting right where she had been since Chris had brought her up here to wait for news.  
"Hasn't she stopped crying at all?" Hook crossed the room and sat down on Chris's other side, looking with concern at Lona, her head buried against Chris's shoulder as she wept.  
  
"I thought I had her calmed down for a little while and then one of the police officers came up here to see if he could take an official statement or something. he said something about how lucky she was that Elmer had got her down when he did and she completely lost it again. Is he awake yet?" Chris asked anxiously. Okay, she knew that seeing Lona in this condition would totally freak Elmer out but maybe if Lona could see that he was actually okay, that he wasn't upset with her or anything....  
  
"Not yet but the nurse in charge of him has my pity when he does wake up." Hook said with a slight shake of his head. Elmer could be impossible while perfectly healthy so Hook didn't even want to think of how he would be acting with minor injuries, especially since the injuries occurred in the defense of Lona. He would probably take the minor wounds as a visible sign of his love for her or something. "Do you think she might be calming down enough to go back and see him now? You know if she's not there when he wakes up, Elmer's going to freak."  
  
"I don't know." Chris said as she looked down at Lona for a moment before looking up at Hook again. "Is Louis calmer now? He didn't say anything before but the way he was looking at Lona like he was blaming her for what happened...."  
  
"He's still pretty upset." Hook said slowly. He had noticed the same thing that Chris had about how Louis was reacting, the mere mention of Lona's name causing his jaw to clinch tightly and this look to appear in his eyes as if he was struggling to push down rage. He shook his head slightly. Okay, he could slightly understand why Louis was reacting the way that he did. Lona was right there, after all, a visible target for the very distraught father to lash out against while the nut who shot Elmer was safely handcuffed to a bed and missing a hand. Still, though, Louis was going to have to see that this just wasn't Lona's fault and soon. If Elmer woke up and found out that his dad had blamed Lona or treated her badly....  
  
"Hook, I don't know if it's a very good idea for her to be around Louis while he's blaming her." Chris said quietly. She was now rocking Lona back and forth, rubbing her back gently in an attempt to soothe her a bit. "Can you talk to him or something, let him know that this wasn't Lona's fault? Why doesn't he go and find Stegman? If anyone needs some blame it's him!"  
  
"Stegman isn't here. He heard about what happened on the news while he was at lunch with Brenda and actually managed to put two and two together for a change and worked out that now might not be the best time to show his face. He invented some sick relative down in Boston and caught a plane out." Sick relative. Yeah, right. Everyone knew that Steg hadn't been born. He had just crawled out from under a rock someplace.  
"That figures." Chris shook her head, anger against Stegman slowly building. He caused a disaster at the hospital and then fled rather than taking responsibility. "Hook, do you think that you can get her in to see Elmer without Louis there? I really don't think they need to be in the same room together right now, not with how freaked she is."  
  
"They'll be taking him to a room in a few minutes. I'll see what I can do to distract Louis for awhile." Hook said as he leaned over, gently kissing Chris's forehead before standing. "Why don't I see about ordering a mild sedative for her too? Elmer really, really doesn't need to see her like this." Hook shook his head slightly as he headed down the hallway to issue the order. No, seeing Lona this freaked would definately not help matters. Here Elmer had saved her from being shot only for her to have a nervous breakdown? He didn't think there was a way for him to put a not so bad spin on that. Maybe if Lona could see Elmer though, could see that he really was okay.... That would probably be the best medicine for both of them. 


	7. chapter 7

A little bit latter, Chris slowly walked down the hallway for the surgical floor, Lona leaning against her, swaying slightly as the sedative started to have a stronger and stronger effect.  
  
"I can't do this, Chris," Lona whispered when they finally stopped outside of a slightly cracked door. She could see Elmer laying there in the bed, pale with an IV dripping blood into his arm. There was a small bandage on his head and she could see another on his shoulder, the edge of it just peaking out from beneath the hospital gown's collar. Lona felt tears starting to well up once more at the sight of him like that and she forced herself to turn away from the doorway, pulling away from Chris and staggering across the hall to collapse in a heap in the floor.  
  
"Lona?" Chris hurried over and dropped to the ground by her friend, gathering Lona against her once more. She looked at Lona with a very worried expression. She was normally so cool and collected and to see her reduced to this, to rocking back and forth like Mona Klingerman and crying.... Chris understood that what Lona had gone through was terrifying to say the least but she just couldn't help but be frightened as she looked down at her friend. All she wanted to do was to help Lona, to be able to do something to get through to her and make her realize that this was going to be okay but it seemed like everything that she tried wasn't getting through at all.  
  
"It's my fault that he's in that bed." Lona whispered as she sobbed. Deep down, there was a little voice trying to whisper to her, to tell her to stop blaming herself but Lona pushed that voice away. How could it not be her fault? If Elmer hadn't loved her so much.... "Why,  
Chris? Why in the world does he love me? I've never encouraged him. I've never done anything to make him willing to do something like this!"  
  
"Lona," Chris paused before speaking. She definitely wouldn't consider herself an expert on love. Hook was about the best relationship that she had ever had and that still was so new. She had to try something to help Lona though. "Lona, you don't do something to make someone fall in love with you, I don't think. It's just something that happens. And like it or not, it looks like Elmer really does love you."  
  
"He shouldn't. He should find someone his own age," Lona said with a shake of her head. Yes, that was it. Elmer needed someone his own age. When he got better, she would sit down and go through everyone in this hospital until she found someone for Elmer, someone better than her.  
Someone who would treat him better than she had ever treated him. "Chris,  
I've treated him so badly and...."  
  
"Lona, I don't think Elmer feels that way or he wouldn't still be going after you." Chris said with a slight smile as she gently patted Lona's back before scrambling to her feet and pulling her friend up also.  
"Now, come on. It's time for you to get in there and see him. You'll feel better when you can see for yourself that Elmer's just fine. You know,  
he's going to be up and annoying us again in no time."  
  
"I can't, Chris." Lona shook her head and turned away from the room. She wanted to run down the hall, far away from this and from her guilt but her legs were trembling and so unsteady that she was sure she would fall flat on her face if she tried.  
  
"Lona." Chris hated to do this to Lona, knowing that her friend really didn't need this now but not knowing what else to do. If Lona could just see Elmer once, then she was sure that that would be the best medicine for both of them. "Lona, Elmer got shot trying to protect you. Don't you think that the least you can do is to visit him for a few minutes and say thank you?"  
  
Lona stared at her friend in shock, as if Chris had just slapped her.  
"Lona, come on. You owe Elmer this." Chris said as she took Lona's arm firmly and led her across the hall and into the room. "Just a few minutes. You owe him a few minutes."  
  
"Elmer?" Lona slowly stepped away toward her friend and moved over to Elmer's bedside rather tentively. She shook her head as she stared down at him. He was pale, but otherwise he looked basically normal. How could he look normal after.... She stretched out a hand, touching the small bandage on his head softly. "Elmer, I'm so, so sorry." She whispered as she collapsed into a chair at his bedside. "Why did you do it? I'm not worth it." Suddenly tears started to pour down her cheeks once more. "I'm so sorry, Elmer. Please, please be alright." 


	8. chapter 8

Louis stopped when he entered the room, seeing Lona sitting there at his son's side. He struggled, trying to force down his first impulse to yell at her, to tell her how this entire thing was her fault and if she had really wanted to she would have done something to help his son, ended his crush on her. That stupid, stupid crush. Now look at what had happened to Elmer because of it.  
  
"Louis," Chris said softly. She could definitely understand why he was feeling the way he was, knew that it was normal to want to lash out at someone, but she also knew that with how badly Lona was taking this, any harsh words could push her over the edge. If Elmer would just wake up.  
That would fix this entire problem. Once Lona and Louis both saw that he was okay....  
  
Louis slowly walked across the room taking another chair at Elmer's bedside, nodding his head slightly to let Chris know that he understood and wouldn't say anything to Lona no matter how much he wanted to. He didn't trust himself to speak now, didn't trust himself not to say something that would hurt her. Louis knew rationally that this wasn't Lona's fault and that if Elmer ever found out that he had blamed her, his son would be furious. He couldn't help his instinctive reaction, though, the desire to lash out at something for what had happened to his son. Hadn't losing his first son been enough? Now to have Elmer endangered as well.... What had he done that was so wrong that he deserved this? He struggled to hold back tears as he thought of the son that he had lost, of the son that he had been so frightened that he could have lost today. He reached out, gently touching Elmer's face. If he would just wake up now.  
  
"He's going to be fine," Hook said quietly to the room in general.  
He looked with concern at Lona sitting there sobbing softly as she clung to Elmer's hand and Louis just sitting there silently and trying not to look at her. There was so much guilt flying around the room that it was almost suffocating. 'Bet you didn't expect that something like this would happen, did you, Elmer?' Hook thought as he moved away from the doorway to stand at Chris's side. He knew that Elmer had always though that his father didn't care much for him, had preferred his brother to him and then with how Lona continually rejected him....  
  
Hook shook his head slightly before continuing to speak. "He's just sleeping off the anesthetic right now. He'll probably be out of it until morning. Sort of a good thing, actually. Ought to let him sleep off most of the headache. If you want to, you can go home and rest or...."  
  
"I'm not leaving him." Louis whispered, barely able to keep tears back the longer that he looked at his son and those bandages. Common sense was telling him that he was making a big deal out of nothing, but panic won out. No, there was no way that he could leave his son's bedside. Not until he saw for himself that Elmer really was okay.  
  
Lona looked rapidly back and forth between Elmer, the door and Louis. She couldn't stand to see him like this, to know that she was to blame for his injuries but all the same she couldn't make herself move from his side either. Although Chris's guilt trip had been what had gotten her into the room now something more, something she wasn't entirely sure of,  
was making her want to stay. If she was just going to hurt Louis though..... Before she could make up her mind what to do, a wave of dizziness washed over her. She tried to grab the armrests of the chair but it was no use. She was no longer in control of her body as she felt herself slipping to the floor and into blackness.  
  
Chris and Hook were at her side in an instant, followed a second later by Louis, doctorly instincts and concern for his friend overriding his anger at her.  
  
"What happened?" he asked, a bit of anxiousness in his voice.  
Okay, he had been upset with Lona but he also knew that she would understand and that they would be able to work things out later once Elmer was feeling better and back to normal. If something had happened to her.... And how would he ever tell his son if something happened to Lona?  
  
"I think the sedative might have kicked in fully." Chris said as she looked up from Lona. "Her breathing and pulse seem good anyway. Hook,  
can you help me get her down to the sleep lab?"  
  
"No, don't do that." Louis said with a shake of his head. The alarm he had felt at seeing Lona crumpling to the floor had for the moment overridden any anger he was still feeling towards her. "I'll go and see if they can bring a cot in here for her." When he noticed Chris and Louis staring at him, he continued. "Just because I'm mad at her doesn't mean that she suddenly isn't my friend. And I definately don't want to have to try to explain this to Elmer if he wakes up and she isn't here. I'll be right back." 


	9. chapter 9

Louis watched quietly as Hook and Chris settled Lona onto the cot he had convinced one of the nurses to bring in. He hadn't paid much attention to her before, had been too angry with her for Elmer's injuries but now he took a careful look at her. She was pale, almost unnaturally pale, and her eyes were so red and swollen that he wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't open them tomorrow. Then he noticed something in her hair, a slight smear of red...  
  
"She didn't get hurt too, did she?" He asked, concern apparent in his voice as he joined Hook and Chris at Lona's side. He looked back at Elmer for a moment, not really wanting to be even a few feet from his son but he also knew how upset he would be if he woke up and found that Lona had been hurt and his father hadn't done a thing to help her. And Lona was his friend no matter how he might be feeling at the moment. He reached out and pushed her hair aside a bit. Yes, there was definitely blood there but was it hers or....  
  
"It might be...." Hook started to say Elmer's name but then stopped concerned that reminding Louis of his son's injuries might set him off against Lona again. "And somehow, that nut who did this had his hand ripped off when I got up there. Needless to say, the hall was a bit messy."  
  
"Did they reattach the hand?" Louis took a piece of gauze from Chris and cautiously wiped at the blood, relief apparent when he could see that the blood wasn't Lona's after all.  
  
"Weirdest thing. They couldn't find it when they went to see about getting it for reattachment," Hook said with a shake of his head. They had been gossiping about it in the surgeon's lounge when he had finished patching up Elmer and he had gotten the entire story along with the most popular rumors. "The gun was there but the hand had vanished. Current leader in the gossip pool is that Blondi ate it."  
  
"Remind me to buy Blondi a steak," Louis muttered under his breath. Okay, as a doctor he knew he shouldn't wish ill on someone but he wasn't a doctor at the moment but a very frightened father and he was going to wish as much ill as he could on the person who had harmed his son.  
  
"Louis, you do know that this really isn't Lona's fault, right?"  
Chris said gently. She was worried that talking about it would trigger Louis's anger once more but all the same she felt that she had to. Louis blaming her was tearing her friend apart and....  
  
"I know, I just...." Louis couldn't explain exactly what he was really blaming Lona to begin with. Maybe it was just because she was there and a convenient target, maybe because she had been okay when his son.  
But would he have honestly have wanted Lona to have been hurt? If something had happened to her, Louis knew that Elmer would have been devastated but....  
  
"I saw the entire thing on the security cameras." Hook said quietly. "That guy just appeared out of nowhere and Lona had her back to him. If Elmer hadn't got her out of the way when he did, she would likely be paralyzed now or worse."  
  
Louis slowly nodded. He understood rationally, he really did, that this wasn't Lona's fault but when he thought of his son laying in that hospital bed.... He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself.  
Elmer was okay, Hook said that he would be fine that the wounds were really just grazes. Why was he reacting like this, hurting Lona so over a couple of grazes? He shook his head as he opened his eyes. Elmer would probably be actually pleased about his wounds, visible signs of his affection for Lona or something.  
  
"You know, he's going to be so disappointed but I doubt they're even going to leave a scar." Hook said with a shake of his head as he looked over at the younger doctor. "Louis, this is really going to be okay but could you please just try to go easy on Lona for awhile?" He knew that she had to be seriously traumatized, although she had escaped physical injury.  
  
Louis slowly nodded. His anger was starting to fade although he still couldn't help but be almost overcome by fear as he looked at his son.  
If Elmer would just wake up, wake up and let him know that he was okay.  
Then everything would be alright once more. He wouldn't even complain the next time his son pulled one of his goofy tricks to get Lona's attention like the head incident. Not as long as his son was alright. 


	10. chapter 10

As Lona felt herself drifting up out of her drugged sleep, her first thought was that it had been a dream, that the entire situation with Elmer saving her life and being shot wasn't real. Maybe they were even still down in the lab running tests again. The entire thing felt like another of Elmer's bizarre dreams. She really wished it had been the morgue dream again though. She would have even been willing to let him go a bit further than he had on their first visit if he would have dreamed them there instead of into this nightmare.  
  
"Here. You're probably going to need this for those eyes." Lona heard a voice speak from somewhere above her and after a moment she recognized Louis. She struggled to force her eyes to open just a little bit, enough for her to see that she was laying on a cot in a hospital room,  
Louis standing at her side holding out a washcloth.  
  
"Louis?" Lona murmured, reaching out and taking the washcloth,  
pressing it against her painfully swollen eyes. He didn't sound like he was angry but.... "Louis, I am so sorry! Please believe me! I would never have done anything that would have put Elmer in danger. I never would have wanted him to...."  
  
"Lona, it's okay." Louis said softly. Deep down he was still feeling a bit of anger at her but he had had time to think about it and realize how unfair he was being to her. Lona was just as upset as he was and being angry at her was only making a bad situation worse without helping in the slightest. And if Elmer woke up and found out that his father had upset Lona so.... Louis shook his head slightly as he pictured that reaction. Elmer could get aggravated with Lona not taking him seriously, true, but just let someone else say anything about her and he was up in arms.  
  
Lona slowly pulled herself upright, still holding the washcloth to her eyes. "Louis, I swear I've never done anything or said anything to Elmer to make him do something like that. I've...."  
  
"Lona, it's really okay. You have nothing to be apologizing for,  
okay? If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you. I shouldn't have acted the way that I did yesterday, trying to blame this on you. I'm sorry." Louis said as he reached out a hand, helping her to her feet and guiding her to a chair at Elmer's bedside.  
  
"You had every right. If it wasn't for me, then Elmer would be trying around on rounds with you right now instead of..." She could feel tears starting to well up once more. How could she have more tears though?  
She thought she had used them all up the night before.  
  
"Lona, If Elmer hadn't done what he did, I would be trying to comfort a hysterical son right now or even worse planning to attend a friend's funeral." Louis pulled his seat closer to her and wrapped an arm around Lona to comfort her. "Elmer did the right thing getting you down like he did. I do wish he had moved a bit faster and got himself out of the way too, though." Louis said with a slight chuckle.  
  
"But...." Lona wasn't quite able to let go of her guilt just yet,  
the memories of seeing Elmer laying crumpled in the hallway and all of the blood everywhere, too much blood. "Why? Why does he love me?" She whispered softly, barely able to keep from crying as she spoke.  
  
"Why does anyone fall in love?" Louis said quietly. "Why did I love Emma after all those years, after how she hurt my boys so much. Lona,  
it's going to be alright. Hook says that he's going to be fine."  
  
Lona bit her lip, trying to pull herself together. It wasn't fair that Louis was having to comfort her like this. Not when he was Elmer's father and had much more right to be upset than she did.  
  
"Lona, Hook says that when he wakes up...." Louis could see that he hadn't quite gotten through to Lona yet.  
  
"When he wakes up?" Lona forced her swollen eyes open, looking at the bed once more and Elmer laying there. He looked so innocent and Lona had to admit more than a bit cute. He was so still though, unnaturally still. "Louis, hasn't he moved at all since last night?"  
  
"No." Louis said slowly as worry suddenly came rushing back almost full force at Lona's question. He hadn't really thought much of Elmer not waking, had just assumed that he was still sleeping of the seditive but now that Lona had made him think of it, he realized that the medication should have worn off hours before. So why wasn't Elmer awake yet? "I'll page Hook." 


	11. chapter 11

"What's going on?" Hook said as he entered the room. He looked over at Louis and Lona, pleased to see that they had apparently worked things out after the near disaster of the day before but there was something wrong, he could tell that right away, something missing. But what was.... Suddenly it hit him. Elmer. He ought to be sitting up in bed at this point enjoying having his dad and Lona hovering and fussing.  
So why was he still just laying there, totally motionless?  
  
"He hasn't even twitched," Louis said with a shake of his head before Hook could ask. "What's going on? You said he would be awake by now."  
  
"I don't know. He should be awake." Hook's brow furrowed as he moved to Elmer's bedside. 'You better not be milking this, Elmer.' he thought to himself as he carefully checked the wounds, feeling Elmer's pulse and checking his eyes with a penlight.  
  
"Well, what's wrong with him?" Louis demanded. His worry was building with each moment that passed with his son still unconscious. "You said that the wounds were nothing but grazes, nothing to worry about! So why isn't he waking up?"  
  
"I'm honestly not sure." Hook said with a shake of his head.  
"Those wounds aren't anything but grazes. We did x-rays and scanned his head last night to be safe and there was absolutely no sign of a problem then. And frankly right now I can't find anything obvious either. His pulse is good, his breathing's fine, his eyes are reacting normally, no sign of any infection. He ought to be awake."  
  
"But he isn't awake. So what's wrong with him?" Lona whispered as tears threatened to fall once more. She had been feeling slightly better with the knowledge that Elmer was going to be alright but now that this problem had surfaced.... "What's wrong with him?" As she spoke, a sob slipped out and she felt the tears starting to fall once more.  
  
"Lona, calm down, okay?" Hook said as he approached her but Louis was already there, holding her close and soothing her as best he could.  
Hook shook his head slightly at that. Maybe Elmer better not wake up for a bit. If the younger doctor saw that, he was sure that Elmer would jump to totally the wrong conclusion.  
  
"What about another scan?" Louis asked. He knew that sometimes things could appear perfectly normal initially only to go rapidly downhill later. He shook his head slightly as he thought of that, of possible bad outcomes. Please, whatever happened, he just didn't want to lose his son!  
  
"We'll definitely need to do one of those," Hook said slowly as he looked at Elmer. He still wasn't all together sure that the younger doctor might not be milking this a little. He knew how Elmer felt, that his father had never loved him as much as he loved his older brother, after all. He wouldn't put it past Elmer to try to do something to find out if his father really did care for him but how far would he take it? Lona was fast heading back into hysterics despite Louis's attempts to calm her.  
  
"Listen, why don't you take her downstairs to the cafeteria and see about getting some food into her?" Hook said quietly to Louis. He knew that the older doctor probably wouldn't want to leave his son's side but they had to do something for Lona and fast. If she stayed like this much longer, Hook was worried that she was going to break down completely.  
Before Louis could say anything to object or refuse to budge from Elmer's side, Hook continued. "I'll get the order for the scan while you're gone and see about putting a rush on it."  
  
Just then, another possibility occurred to him. "You know, Elmer did lose a good bit of blood. It's possible that that's just making him react to the anesthesia a bit too strongly."  
  
Louis nodded in response. He had seen people reacting with an unusual intensity to anesthesia before although this reaction was going a bit longer than any he had seen. Still, though, he had to admit that it could be the problem.  
  
"I'll see about getting him started on another medicine to counteract the anesthetic. That should take care of it if that is the problem." Hook said as he patted Louis's shoulder to reassure him.  
  
"Fine." Louis still didn't want to leave but Lona's sobs were increasing now and he definately saw the need to get her out of there for awhile. "Just take care of my son. Come on, Lona. Let's go and get some breakfast for you. Elmer will probably be awake by the time we get back."  
  
"Okay, Elmer." Hook said as soon as Louis and Lona were safely out of the room and the door was firmly closed behind them. "If you're trying to milk this a little, now would be a good time to quit it." 


	12. chapter 12

"Hook?" Chris called as she came into Elmer's room. "I just passed by the cafeteria and I saw Louis and Lona down there. They both looked pretty upset. What's going on?"  
  
"I wish I knew." Hook said with a shake of his head as he watched Elmer closely for any sign of a response, any sign that he was starting to wake up. It had been almost ten minutes since he had given him an injection to counteract any possible lingering effects of the anesthetic.  
So why wasn't he starting to snap out of this? What in the world could he have missed? He had ordered practically every test that he could think of the night before, he had been so shocked to find that Elmer's wounds were actually minor after what damage he had expected.  
  
Chris moved towards Elmer's bedside before stopping as something hit her. Elmer. Why in the world wasn't he sitting up in bed by now,  
being his usual goofy self? "Hook, why isn't he awake?" Chris asked, a bit of worry slipping into her voice as she spoke. It had been well over twelve hours since Elmer had been injured. Surely any lingering effects of the anesthetic would have worn off long before now. So why was Elmer still laying there still and silent? Lona looked frantic and Louis wasn't much better. Shouldn't Elmer be awake and happily basking in them fussing over him?  
  
"I don't know what's going on," Hook said with a shake of his head as he looked from Elmer to Chris, worry growing steadily. What in the world had he missed last night? He would have bet anything that Elmer had been perfectly fine but considering his condition now.... "Chris, come over here and take a look at these results from last night's scan."  
  
Chris walked over, laying a gentle hand on Hook's shoulder before she reached out and took the offered papers. After seeing his little graveyard, she knew how seriously Hook took medical mistakes and the idea that he might have made one, especially one that could have resulted in harm to a friend, had to be tearing him apart.  
  
"I don't see anything here." Chris said after reading through the results and then double checking them. "Negative for bleeding. Negative for skull fracture. Negative for swelling."  
  
"I know." Hook reached out and took the records from her once more. "But what I don't understand is why in the world he isn't waking up if these results are correct!" He looked over at Elmer once more, barely able to hold back a bit of panic this time. If anything happened to him because of a mistake that he had made, he would never forgive himself.  
  
"I hate to suggest it, but could he maybe be trying to milk things to get Lona and Louis's attention?" Chris said. She walked over to the bed as she spoke, reaching out and touching Elmer gently. She wasn't sure how in the world she could tell if he was faking, though.  
  
"That was the first thing that I thought of." Hook said with a grimace. "He's not faking or he's way better at it than I would have ever thought. I was thinking that it was either the anesthesia or he was trying to milk this a bit so I told the nurse to give him the injection of medicine in the rear. Not even a twitch. Do you think...."  
  
"No way Elmer would be able to fake it through getting a needle jabbed there." Chris said with a slight laugh. "So, what do you think is wrong?"  
  
"I wish I knew." Hook shook his head as he thought about it, his mind running all the while as he tried to puzzle out what might be going on. "We're going to take him and do another scan. Do you have time to come with me? Maybe you'll spot whatever I've obviously missed."  
  
Chris nodded. "Hook, don't beat yourself up over this, okay?" she said quietly as she wrapped her arms around him. "You're a fantastic doctor and I know you would never do anything to hurt Elmer. If something's wrong with him now, you'll just fix it and everything will be fine. Please don't be blaming yourself. Lona doing that's bad enough,  
okay?"  
  
"I know but.... I just wish I had a clue as to what I missed."  
Hook said as he shook his head.  
  
A little bit later, Hook and Chris slowly walked through the hallway heading up towards Elmer's room once more, the latest test results in hand.  
"I just don't understand this." Hook said slowly as he looked at the results once more as if he expected what it said to have changed since the last time he had reread it. "Everything is still showing up fine.  
Chris, did you see anything, anything at all? Maybe a tiny bleed that I missed somehow?"  
  
"Hook, I saw the same things that you did." Chris wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders as she spoke. Hook really did like Elmer a lot and she knew that he was taking this hard. "There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary with the scan. Nothing.  
Physically, Elmer's absolutely fine."  
  
"Then why isn't he waking up?" Hook said quietly as he thought of that still, silent figure. "If he's fine, then why in the world isn't he waking up?" 


	13. chapter 13

Louis and Lona had both returned to Elmer's bedside the second that he was brought back from radiology, Lona clinging to Elmer's hand and obviously trying not to break into sobs once more. Both of them looked up when the door opened and Hook and Chris entered.  
  
"Well, what's wrong with him?" Louis demanded. He was trying to force himself to stay calm, knowing that if he showed any sign of worry, it would only set Lona off once more and he wasn't sure that he would be able to calm her down again. Concern for his son almost overwhelmed him,  
though. What in the world could be wrong for Elmer to stay unconscious this long if his wounds were so minor?  
  
"From what I can tell from the scans, there's nothing wrong with him." Hook shook his head, the confusion that he was feeling clearly written on his face as he moved to the other side of Elmer's bed once more,  
reaching out to check vitals and his eyes. He shook his head. Pulse was normal and his eyes were reacting just fine. Why in the world wasn't he awake? The more that he watched, the surer he became that Elmer couldn't possibly be faking this somehow. The young man had a bad habit of not thinking before he did things, it was true, but Hook just couldn't see him taking it this far, not when he could be basking in his father and Lona fussing over him and lavishing attention on him instead.  
  
"The scan didn't show anything?" Louis asked as he looked from Chris to Hook.  
  
"Not a thing, Louis. I took a look too and everything looked perfectly normal." Chris said with a shake of her head. This entire situation was totally confusing and looked to be getting more confusing by the moment. She just hoped that Louis didn't transfer the anger that he had been feeling towards Lona the night before onto Hook now.  
  
"How can that be?" Louis looked over at his son once more, lying so still in that bed, unnaturally still, especially for Elmer. How could his son be perfectly fine and yet for some reason be comatose as well?  
"How,,,, Perfectly healthy people don't end up in comas!" Had something happened when Hook had been working on Elmer, had he made some sort of mistake or.... But no, he firmly rejected that notion. Nook was the type that would admit any errors that he might have made, would try everything in his power to make them right, not like Stegman who would never admit that he was wrong.  
  
"I wish I knew what was going on. He should be awake. Everything we've done says that he definitely should be awake by now." Hook looked down at Elmer as he spoke, like he was hoping that something, anything,  
would suddenly jump out and give him a clue as to what was going on. It didn't make any sense. Elmer was young and healthy. Those wounds were nothing more than grazes. So why wasn't Elmer awake and bragging about them, saying they were signs of his affection for Lona?  
  
Hook reached out, gently undoing the bandages covering the wounds on Elmer's shoulder and head, hoping that maybe there was something there,  
some sign of infection. That would be at least something that they could fix but... Nothing, though. The two wounds looked fine, like they would probably even heal without scarring, a fact that might disappoint Elmer a bit if he was looking for some permanent reminder of his love for Lona.  
  
Louis stood, watching carefully as Hook checked the wounds, shaking his head as he watched. The wounds looked fine, even better than he had actually expected. If it wasn't a reaction to an infection, though, and it wasn't something going on in his son's head, then what in the world was causing this? Why wasn't Elmer awake?  
  
"I'm going to order a complete blood panel and an EEG," Hook said quietly as he replaced the bandages before staring down at Elmer once more.  
He was almost willing to forget all about that mess with the head if the younger doctor would just open his eyes and be alright.  
  
Before anyone could say anything else, Lona suddenly started to sob again. "He's going to die, isn't he?" She choked out as she buried her face in her hands, tears that she thought were exhausted suddenly pouring down her face. Lona found herself suddenly shaking at the thought of seeing Elmer in a coffin, seeing him lowered into a dark, cold hole in the ground. No, no, no! This was all her fault!  
  
"Hook, figure out what this is fast," Louis said quietly as he reached out, gathering Lona into his arms once more and starting to rock her back and forth gently. He wasn't sure how much more of this Lona could take, wasn't sure how much more that he could take either. If anything happened to Elmer.... He couldn't do it again, couldn't handle losing another son. 


	14. chapter 14

"How's Lona?" Hook asked as he came down the hallway towards Elmer's room and spotted Chris standing outside. He had spent the last few hours trying to convince the lab to put a rush on the bloodwork and standing over their shoulders to make sure that there were no errors.  
  
"You mean besides making me think that she might be needing a psych referral soon?" Chris said with a shake of her head. She just couldn't believe that Lona had fallen apart like this and over Elmer too. Okay,  
Chris expected Lona to be upset about what happened, of course, but with how Lona was always saying that Elmer drove her nuts, she just didn't expect at all that her friend would fall into such hysterics. She grinned slightly at her next thought Maybe Lona liked Elmer a bit more than she was willing to admit. There was a notion that would definitely please the young doctor, that is if he ever woke up to find out about it. That sobered her almost instantly.  
  
"She hasn't calmed down at all?" Hook asked. Okay, the more upset that Lona got, the more that he was absolutely sure that Elmer couldn't be faking this. Elmer could do some stupid stuff, it was true, but no way would he do it to the point that Lona's wellbeing might be endangered. He shook his head softly as he thought of that. He had a feeling that Lona's wellbeing was even more important to Elmer than his own even if he could do stupid stuff sometimes.  
  
"I had to give her another sedative." Chris was starting to definitely look worried by this point. "Louis and I got her back into bed.  
Maybe after a good sleep.... Hook, do you have any clue what in the world is wrong with Elmer?" Elmer was usually so full of life and to see him lying there motionless in the bed like that... Chris had had to come out to the hall to try to get a hold of herself before she started to freak like Lona.  
  
"I have no idea what could be causing this. Here, take a look."  
Hook said as he passed the test results to Chris. He had insisted that the lab test for everything possible, had even asked them to run tests for any sort of illicit drugs.  
  
"Drugs?" Chris said softly as she came to that part of the test results. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked up at Hook. "You think that maybe Elmer was taking something and..." Okay, some sort of illicit drugs would definitely explain why Elmer had lapsed into a coma when there was no physical reason to explain it but.... Although she knew that a lot of younger doctors did take thinks to get through the pressures of med school and residency, she would never have thought that Elmer would be the type to do something like that.  
  
"No, I don't really think that's what's going on," Hook said with a shake of his head and a grin at Chris. "Elmer's just naturally odd."  
Honestly with Elmer's natural personality, Hook would hate to see what would happen if the younger doctor ever did decide to give drugs a try.  
Now that would be a frightening situation. Might even be more frightening that the notion of Stegman operating.  
  
"My son doesn't take drugs!" Unnoticed by the pair, Louis had stepped out into the hall and had heard what they were discussing. He glared at both Hook and Chris as his anger started to build. Here his son was laying there in that hospital bed, helpless, and his so called friends were out here doing something to totally destroy his reputation. If people thought that Elmer was on drugs.... "He would never, ever...."  
  
"Louis, we know that, okay? Settle down." Hook said as he hurried over to Louis's side with Chris right behind him. "I'm just grasping at straws here trying to figure out what in the world is going on."  
  
"It's not drugs." Louis said firmly. "I can guarantee that." He reached out, snagging the results out of Hook's hand and rapidly scanning them.  
  
"There's nothing there." Hook said as he watched Louis. "They tested for everything but there's just nothing."  
  
"How can that be?" Louis whispered as he looked up. Hook was right, the tests were completely negative but then what was wrong with his son? "Healthy people just don't end up in comas!"  
  
"I know. The only thing that I could find is a couple of areas on the EEG that look a bit off." Hook shook his head as he thought of that.  
"Of course, that might be something completely normal for Elmer. I would need to talk to an expert to be sure."  
  
"And the Elmer expert around here just happens to be heavily sedated at the moment." Chris said as she peered into the partially open door. What in the world were they going to do now? 


	15. chapter 15

Lona felt herself slowly drifting upwards towards consciousness,  
heard a voice calling her name. She resisted though, not wanting to go back for some reason she wasn't quite sure of. Something hurt, deep inside of her and she knew that if she opened her eyes, then the pain would completely overwhelm her.  
  
"Lona?" Hook knelt down at the side of the cot, taking one of Lona's hands and rubbing it to try to stimulate some reaction, any reaction. Okay, this was definitely starting to alarm him a bit. They had waited, wanting to let the sedative wear off naturally so that Lona could get some rest and hopefully become functional once more and able to help them but she hadn't stirred at all. What in the world was going on here?  
If she ended up in a coma as well....  
  
"Lona!" Louis firmly called her name, sternness like he would have used to scold Elmer in his tone. If Hook was right and something was going on odd inside his son's brain, then Lona was the best one to figure it out.  
And that meant that they had to somehow get her back into a functional state once more.  
  
The sound of the last voice calling for her was too much and Lona felt herself drifting upwards towards consciousness once more, the pain almost overwhelming her as she did so. As she blinked open her eyes, she automatically looked over and caught sight of Elmer laying there so still and silent. The tears started to build once more and she begin to tremble.  
No, why was this still happening, why was he still... She closed her eyes to try to gain control but it was no use. This was all her fault. Elmer was going to die and it was all her fault.  
  
"Lona?" Chris sat down on the cot next to her friend, raising her up and holding her close to try to soothe her. "It's alright. I promise it's alright. Can you please try to calm down a little bit? We need your help with something. Can you calm down enough to try to help Elmer?  
Please?"  
  
Help Elmer. Why in the world would they want her to help Elmer when it was her fault that he was in this condition? Well, unless they were wanting him helped to an early grave, something that she was absolutely sure would happen if he hung around her much more. She felt tears starting to run down her cheeks and she didn't even try to fight them. Why in the world did Elmer.... It should have been her, should have been her laying in that bed.  
  
"Lona, please get a hold of yourself." Hook said as he sat down on Lona's other side, reaching out and holding her much like Chris was. They needed Lona functional but at this point, he thought that might be a very long shot. 'Elmer, I don't know why in the world you aren't waking up if you can hear this.' he thought. This would be absolutely perfect for Elmer. Lona totally freaked out and worried sick about him. Elmer had pretty much won. if he would just wake up now.  
  
"Lona?" Louis knelt down beside the bed, reaching out and slightly shaking her shoulder. Okay, he had been mad at her before and he knew that what he said had hurt her. He really didn't want to risk that again but what if she was the only one who could help his son? "Lona!" He called her name sternly this time. "My son got hurt because of you. The least that you can do is to pull yourself together and try to help him!"  
  
"I didn't.... I didn't ask him to do it, would never ask him to do something like that." Lona whispered as she opened her eyes, looking at Louis with a desperate, pleading look as tears continued to fall.  
  
"Lona, we know you didn't. We know this isn't your fault." Okay,  
Louis yelling at Lona had actually gotten through to her but Chris wasn't sure at all that it had been the right move. "Listen, Lona, Hook has some tests that he needs you to take a look at, okay? Do you think you can do that so we can figure out how to fix whatever's wrong with Elmer?"  
  
"Hospital's too peaceful without him running around." Hook said with a grin as he held out the test results of the EEG for her. "If anyone knows about what goes on inside that strange brain of Elmer's, it's you.  
Can you make something out of these because I'm just not finding anything."  
  
Lona reached out and took the papers. She still felt like she wanted to sob and never stop but what Hook said about her being the only one with a clue about what went on in Elmer's head.... 'Don't think you would want to know what goes on in his head.' she thought to herself as she looked at the papers, searching for any sort of abnormality.  
"Is this all that you have?" she asked a moment later in a voice that was much calmer than she had sounded since before the shooting.  
  
"Yeah. The MRI and the bloodwork came back negative." Hook said.  
"Is there anything there that you can see?"  
  
"Not really. There are a couple of areas with diminished activity but with Elmer in a coma, that's not too surprising." Lona said quietly,  
looking from the papers to Elmer and back again. "The rest of it looks perfectly normal for Elmer."  
  
"But if it's normal, then why is he in a coma?" Louis whispered.  
  
"I wish I knew and I'm not going to stop until I find out what's wrong." Hook shook his head as he looked at Elmer, still not able to believe what was going on. Why in the world wasn't he up and driving them crazy like he always did. What was he missing here? He shook his head trying to drive away the feeling that he was failing his friend big time.  
"In the mean time, all I can suggest is talking to him, holding his hand,  
maybe some sort of music. Try to keep him stimulated. It might help to bring him out of this thing." 


	16. chapter 16

"Listen, I'm going to go and check the lab again, see if they can do some more tests." Hook said with a shake of his head. There were some things that they didn't routinely test for, real long shots but.... What did they have left now but long shots? There wasn't an obvious reason for Elmer to still be in this coma. "Chris, want to come with me, see if you might get something that I might be missing?"  
  
Chris nodded, gently patting Lona's shoulder once more before heading out the door after Hook. As they left, Louis and Lona moved to Elmer's bedside once more.  
  
"Elmer?" Lona whispered softly as she reached out and took his hand in hers. She had to force back tears as she touched him. She was so used to Elmer being bouncy and full of life, always following her around like a little puppy dog and to see him like this, so still and silent, his hand limp in hers, broke her heart in a way that she didn't think was possible. What in the world was wrong with him? Why wasn't he waking up?  
A vague idea was starting to form in the back of her head of something that she could do to help him but she was still so foggy from the sedative that she couldn't pull it to the forefront of her brain so that she could see it. "Louis?" She looked over at Elmer's father with heartbreak in her eyes, He had to hate her for this. Goodness knows that she hated herself for it.  
  
"It's okay, Lona." Louis had been angry with her at first, for being okay when his son was hurt and he had to admit that he could still feel that anger bubbling in the back of his head. He wouldn't give in to it, though, wouldn't explode like he had once more. Elmer was going to be fine. They just had to figure out why in the world he wasn't waking up and fix it, He would be fine once they did that. And honestly if he let himself admit it, Elmer had done the right thing by saving Lona. If not for him, she would be either dead or paralyzed right now. He just wished his son would have moved a tiny bit faster and gotten out of the way as well.  
  
"I'm sorry." Lona whispered softly to Louis, a tear slipping down her cheek as she spoke. "I never would have wanted Elmer to do this, to get hurt like this for me. Why? Why did he...." She bit her lip trying to keep from slipping into hysterics once more. Elmer was so young with his whole life ahead of him. Why would he risk it for her? She was so much older and she had already had a good life. She wasn't worth it. She shook her head as she thought of it. She definitely wasn't worth it. Her fingers gently stroked his as she thought. Yes, as soon as Elmer woke up she was going to have to do something, find someone for him, someone younger who would treat him the way that he deserved to be treated, someone better than her.  
  
Louis looked over at Lona but held himself back from speaking.  
There was something that he wanted to ask her but he knew that it was wildly inappropriate considering the circumstances. All it would do would be to heap guilt on her as well as pressure. Could she love Elmer by any chance though? For his son's sake, Louis feverently hoped so. He had always tried to play down Elmer's affection for Lona as a simple crush but it was pretty obvious now that it was definitely something more. He shook his head ruefully as he thought of it, of the fact that their relationship had deteriorated to the point that he didn't know something that was so important to his son. He reached out, gently touching Elmer's forehead,  
brushing at his hair. He knew that Elmer had always thought that he had loved Edgar more but... Edgar had been older than Elmer when Emma had left though, had been easier to talk to and.... He should have tried harder with Elmer though, should have tried to find a way to fix things. He shook his head once more, trying to keep from crying himself, knowing it wouldn't help the situation and would only make Lona even worse.  
  
"What happened to the man who did this?" Lona asked quietly. She was worried that if Elmer could hear them that mentioning the man who had hurt him could make him worse. If he could hear though, then why wasn't he waking up for them?  
  
"Downstairs under guard." Louis chuckled slightly as he spoke,  
taking a certain bit of pleasure out the man's fate. "They couldn't find his hand, you know. The theory is that Blondi ate it."  
  
"That dog eats everything," Lona said softly as she stroked Elmer's fingers. Cold, why was he so cold, almost like he was.... No,  
no, no! She couldn't think that, wouldn't let herself thing that.  
  
"Rumor is that Blondi got Stegman's birthday cake too." Actually,  
Louis wished that the dog had left that alone. If he had, then Stegman would have been at the hospital when that patient went nuts, would maybe be the one injured right now instead of his son. He firmly pushed that thought away. Anger with anyone now, even someone who deserved it as richly as Stegman, just served to take his focus and energy away from where it should be, on his son. He reached out and gently patted Lona's arm,  
pulling her close and letting her rest her head against his shoulder.  
"He's going to be okay," he said softly as he started to rub her back.  
"He'll be up and around in no time."  
  
Lona couldn't speak, just nodded silently as she continued to stroke Elmer's fingers. She wanted to believe what Louis was saying but looking at Elmer lying there so unnaturally still, it was just hard to think of anything but the worst. He was never that still, was always bouncing around. She felt a tear slipping down her cheek once more as she thought of it. Why wouldn't he just wake up? She had checked the EEG.  
There was nothing wrong with him. So why in the world wasn't Elmer awake?  
  
"Maybe he just needs to sleep for a bit?" Louis said quietly as he held Lona close. If Elmer would just wake up for a few minutes, though,  
something to show that his son was going to be okay, then he would feel so much better. 'And if Elmer would just wake up,' he thought as he looked down at Lona, 'then he would do anything, whatever Elmer needed, to help him to win Lona.' 


	17. chapter 17

"I just don't know what I'm missing," Hook muttered as his eyes ran over the latest test results again. Okay, there were still some more exotic tests that they were still working on running but he knew those were real long shots. What in the world was going on here? Why wasn't Elmer awake? He had to have missed something, some sort of small thing, but why couldn't he figure out what it was now that he was searching for it?  
  
"Hook, you have to stop beating yourself up, okay?" Chris said gently as she laid a hand on his shoulder. She knew that he took medical mistakes seriously but she hadn't really known how seriously until she saw how he was handling the notion that he might have made a mistake of his own, one that could very well harm a friend. "I've looked over those tests too and there's absolutely nothing wrong that I can see. You can't find things that aren't there."  
  
"There has to be something." Hook insisted. "Healthy people just don't go into comas for no reason and Elmer was fine before...." Had he made a mistake when he was patching Elmer up? Maybe the use of the general had been too much but at the time Elmer's wounds had definitely looked serious enough to call for putting him under. He still couldn't quite believe that they had turned out to be so minor after all.  
  
"No they don't but maybe it's just going to take awhile for us to find the reason." Chris said as she reached up, gently pressing a kiss against Hook's lips. Okay, she hoped he didn't think that was too forward,  
especially considering the current circumstances but he just looked so upset that she couldn't help it. She knew how hard mistakes were and had never had anyone there to comfort her when she knew she had made an error.  
She was definitely going to be there for Hook and do her best to convince him that this wasn't his fault. "Hook, you can't keep blaming yourself for this, okay? You know this isn't what Elmer would want."  
  
"What Elmer would want would be to be sitting up and basking in Louis and Lona both fussing over him." Hook shook his head slightly as he thought of how Lona was taking Elmer's injuries, definitely way worse than he had expected even under the circumstances. He really hoped that that meant that his friend might have a bit of hope for winning her after all.  
  
"Tell me about it. He would definitely love this." Chris said with a grin at Hook. Before he could grow more upset once more, she continued. "And you know what, he's still going to be able to love it.  
We're going to figure out what this is and fix it so that we have our old Elmer back and driving us nuts, right?"  
  
"I just wish it was that easy." Hook said with a shake of his head. He honestly had no idea of which direction to go in now with all of the tests coming back negative.  
  
"It will be, it just doesn't look like it now." Chris said gently.  
"Why don't I call the lab and see if they can take some more blood samples, get them to run the tests again. It could be that we're just dealing with some sort of lab error here."  
  
Hook nodded in response, wanting to hold out hope that Chris's suggestion might be correct but at the same time very afraid that it wasn't.  
  
Chris shook her head as she looked over at Hook. Obviously he didn't think this was a lab error but they had to start looking someplace for a solution. "Okay." she said firmly. "I'll call the lab to get them to run those tests again and then you and I are going back down to your Kingdom to lie down for awhile." From the expression on Hook's face, she could tell that he was about to object more than a little strongly so she continued before he could. "Hook, you were up half of the night last night between getting Elmer fixed up and taking care of Lona. You're not going to be any good to him if you don't get some rest soon. And who knows,  
maybe something will come to us while we're sleeping. I've got a few research ideas that way, you know." She grinned slightly once more as she mentioned that.  
  
"So we'll both be sleeping, hmmm." Hook said with a soft smile as he allowed Chris to lead him down the hall. "You're taking this rather seriously. For better or for worse, hmmmm?" 


	18. chapter 18

It was evening when Hook and Chris finally made their way back upstairs from Hook's Kingdom. "Maybe Elmer's awake by now?" Chris said hopefully as they headed down the hall towards Elmer's room. Okay, so she didn't hear any noise coming from that way but maybe Elmer was just quietly basking in his father and Lona fussing over him. The Lona fussing part alone would probably be enough to shock Elmer into silence. Chris shook her head slightly as she thought of it. When Elmer was on the mend, she was really, really going to have to have a talk with her friend about Elmer. Maybe there was a bit of hope for him after all.

"I hope so." Hook said as he looked down at the chart, flipping through the newest test results in search of something. Nothing, though.  
This thing just didn't make sense. Why in the world were the tests all coming up negative when something was so obviously not right?

"Louis?" Chris called softly as she pushed the door open. She felt herself smiling just a bit when she saw Lona, her head resting on Louis's shoulder, her eyes shut as she slept what was her first undrugged sleep since the day before.

"She finally couldn't stay awake any longer about thirty minutes ago." Louis said softly, careful not to make any more noise than he had to. He didn't want to risk waking Lona. She seriously needed the sleep.  
"What did the tests show?"

"Not a thing." Hook said with a shake of his head as he moved around to Elmer's side, checking the readouts on the monitors and then Elmer's eyes. This just wasn't making sense. The test results were normal. Elmer's vitals were normal. Why wasn't he awake? There was absolutely no reason for him to still be unconscious.

"So, what do we do now?" Louis asked. He just didn't understand this either. Elmer looked absolutely fine to him and the longer he had had to think about it, not to mention a check of the wounds his son had suffered, the more he was convinced that Elmer's condition wasn't due to any sort of mistake on Hook's part. It would require a seriously major effort to goof up what amounted to cleaning out the wounds and putting stitches in, after all. "Hook, this just doesn't make any sense. Elmer shouldn't still be unconscious."

"I know. I can't figure it out either. I'm going to make some calls to a couple of friends of mine, see if they've ever seen anything like this before. He definitely shouldn't be in this condition." Hook said. He was getting more and more worried the longer that Elmer stayed like this. He had been hoping that by the time that he and Chris got back from their nap in Hook's Kingdom that Elmer would have woken up on his own but the had obviously not been that lucky. For him not to be responding like this, Hook was definitely worried that something serious could be wrong. "Louis, has he ever had anything like this happen before, an old head injury or something?" Hook wanted to ask about drugs but he couldn't think of a way to do that without totally setting Louis off once more.

"Or has he maybe had a friend that could have slipped him something sometime?" Chris asked. "There were some stupid kids when I was in school that pulled something like that, slipping things into their friends' drinks just to see what would happen."

Louis thought about that for a moment, his mind running back for something, anything. Surely there was something in the past that might explain this. After several minutes thought, he couldn't come up with anything, though. "Nothing. Elmer was always...." He paused as he thought of his son as a child. He knew he had made mistakes with Elmer,  
hadn't spent nearly enough time with him, had always paid more attention to his brother instead but he was sure that he wouldn't have missed something that could result in a coma. "Elmer was always healthy when he was a child. No accidents or anything."

Well, that was yet another possible explanation out. Hook shook his head as he tried to think of what else he could try to do to figure out what the problem was. "We'll run another scan of his head in the morning"  
he said after a moment. "See if there's any sort of change." Maybe there was some sort of small bleed going on, something that was just taking a bit to show? Hook knew that was likely a long shot though.

"Are you okay with Lona staying here again tonight?" Chris asked gently. "We can take her downstairs if you want." She knew that being able to be near Elmer would probably help Lona but at the same time she didn't want to pressure Louis if he wanted time alone with his son.

"She's fine and Elmer will want her here i... when he wakes up"  
Louis firmly pushed what he had almost said away. His son was going to wake up and be fine. Elmer had to. And when he did, Louis made a promise to himself. No matter what it took, he was going to fix his relationship with Elmer. He would do whatever he had to to fix things. He looked down at the sleeping Lona for a moment as he thought. And he would do whatever he could to help his son win Lona's heart as well. 


	19. chapter 19

"So, any ideas for what we can try now?" Chris asked Hook gently as they headed out of Elmer's room once more, Hook already busily pouring through the latest test results again, seeking something, anything, that might give him a clue as to what could be wrong with Elmer.

"Chris, you don't have to...." Hook would normally have been thrilled that she wanted to work with him on this but with how he was feeling, sure that Elmer's current condition was definitely his fault, he wasn't sure that it wouldn't be better for Chris to totally disassociate herself from him before blame could end up falling on her too.

"Hook, we're in this together. Elmer's my friend too and I'm not just going to walk away when he needs my help, when you need my help. So,  
what are we going to try now? There has to be something that would explain what in the world is wrong with Elmer." Chris said firmly. She just wished she could think of a way to take the guilt that was weighing Hook down away. He wasn't to blame for this. She knew that he wasn't. She just needed a way to make him believe that.

Before Chris could speak, the pair suddenly heard a familiar voice and looked up just as Stegman came heading down the hall right for them.  
"I thought he was in Boston in hiding." Chris muttered as she stared at him. Maybe Stegman's presence would actually be a help this time, though.  
At least Hook would have the person who was actually responsible for the entire situation handy to heap blame upon.

"Hook." Stegman said with a smirk as he stopped in front of Hook and Chris. "Now what's this I hear about you goofing up an operation and messing up Louis Traff's son?" This was just so rich. As soon as Brenda had called to tell him about what had happened, he had caught the first flight he could get on back from Boston, unable to resist the opportunity to gloat at that self righteous Hook's failure.

Before Hook could say anything, Chris burst in. No way was she letting Hook take the blame for this. "Actually, if anyone goofed up things, I believe that would be you, Doctor." Chris said firmly as she glared at Stegman. "It was your patient who lost it and shot Elmer, after all. You don't see any of Hook's patients going psychotic and shooting people, now do you? I think I have a pretty good idea of who Louis is going to be blaming for this entire thing. You really must like the hospital lawyers. You're keeping them so busy."

As Stegman sputtered, shocked that Chris had actually talked back to him, she reached out and snagged Hook's arm. "See you later!" she called as she drug Hook down the hallway away from Stegman. "Say hello to the hospital lawyers! I'm sure they'll be along soon to talk to you about that patient and the gun!"

"Chris, don't do that, okay?" Hook told her firmly as soon as they were out of earshot of Stegman. "You know he's going to try something to pay you back for that." Not that Stegman would succeed if he tried,  
however. No way was Hook letting that idiot do anything that might hurt Chris.

"Hey, I wasn't about to stand there and let him blame you for something that was his fault." Chris said firmly, wrapping her arms around Hook and cuddling him close as they leaned back against the wall. It really made her feel special that Hook cared enough for her to try so hard to protect her but two could play at that game. She was going to do her best to protect him as well and that meant dealing with Steg. "So, what do we do now about Elmer?"

"There's not a whole lot that we can do at the moment." Hook said with a frustrated shake of his head as he thought of the situation. "I'm going to scan his head again in the morning in case there might be some sort of tiny bleed and a friend down in Portland suggested doing a twenty-four hour blood sugar test instead of just the random checks, see if anything unusual shows up there."

Chris nodded, knowing that fluctuations in the blood sugar level could definitely cause something like this. "So Elmer's going to be poked every hour on the hour? If that doesn't get him to wake up.... What about drugs?" She asked after a moment. She didn't want to think that Elmer would be foolish enough to take something illicit but....

"I'm going to get them to test him again and widen the list of drugs they're checking for. I just hope something turns up soon." The longer that Elmer remained unconscious, the harder it would be for them to snap him out of it. 


	20. chapter 20

Lona's eyelids slowly fluttered open, even as she woke her mind hoping and praying that the events of the last few days would all turn out to be nothing but a dream, that she would wake up in the sleep lab with Elmer hanging around waiting to pester her with his latest attempt at seduction. She wouldn't even care if she woke up in the morgue with him once more, as long as he was there, awake and perfectly fine.  
"Elmer?" She called the young doctor's name anxiously, her hand reaching out in search of him.

"There's no change." Louis whispered with a shake of his head as Lona fully opened her eyes, the hope in them fading as she saw Elmer still lying there so unnaturally still.

"Nothing?" Lona whispered. What was going on here? It had been two days now. Why wasn't Elmer awake? He should be awake! The reached out, gently taking his hand in hers, running her fingers over his, hoping for something, a twitch or some sign. This was so unnatural that it was frightening. Elmer was never so still.

"They're going to do another scan of his head in a little while.  
Hook's wanting to see if there might be some sort of small bleed that's taking awhile to show up." Louis paused for a moment before continuing to speak, not sure if he ought to ask this of Lona or not. "Listen, I was wanting to go and check on some patients." It felt more than a little awkward to be speaking of his patients now when he knew his entire focus should be on his son and getting him better but.... "I haven't had time to get them covered or anything and...." He felt terrible even considering his patients but at the moment with Elmer still unconscious, there was nothing he could really do and better for him to get things covered now than to wait anxiously at his son's bedside until he woke up and then have to scramble to get someone to cover for him when he would rather be with Elmer and fussing over him.

"I understand, Louis." Lona said gently, definitely glad that the only thing that she had to worry about at the moment was research and not people that couldn't wait. "I'll be happy to stay with him."

"You're sure you're feeling up to it?" he asked her. With how upset Lona had been, he definitely didn't want to put her through anymore stress.

"I'll be fine. I'll take good care of him. Go on." Lona told Louis firmly. This was all her fault, after all. Sitting with Elmer and looking after him was the least that she could do.

"Elmer?" She called his name, her hand reaching out and gently touching his face as soon as Louis was out of the room. She felt the tears starting to build up once more as she watched him, lying there so still.  
"Elmer, sweetie...."

Before Lona could say anymore, the door came open and Carrie poked her head in. "Hi, how are you doing?"

"Okay. Louis had to go and get someone to cover his patients"  
Lona told the nurse as she entered. "What are you doing down here? I thought you were covering ICU for now."

"They were short staffed and needed anyone they could find"  
Carrie looked closely at the bandages on Elmer's head and shoulder. Okay,  
Elmer was her friend, even after his stupid joke with the head, but.  
"There isn't any blood on those, is there?"

Lona shook her head. "No, everything's fine."

"Good. I swear I don't think I'm going to remember where I live anymore if they have me do many more shifts. After this, they need me over on Peds." Carrie said with a shake of her head before flushing slightly as she recalled the task she had been sent down to Elmer's room to do.

Lona watched critically as Carrie bustled around the room,  
obviously trying to avoid something. The nurse was around Elmer's age, she knew, and Carrie was definitely very nice. Maybe she would be a good match for Elmer? Well, if she had forgiven him for nearly giving her a coronary with the head, she likely would be.

"Carrie, are you seeing anyone?" Lona asked cautiously, a moment later.

"Who has time with the hours Dr. James makes people work?" Carrie said with a laugh. "I think it's been a week now since I've been home.  
I'm not sure I'm going to even be able to find it if I ever get out of here." The nurse paused for a moment. "You know those employment contracts we had to sign a couple of months ago, Dr. James didn't slip something in there about obtaining our souls or something, did he?" She chuckled nervously as she spoke now. "Because I could swear that I felt mine going a little loose on me a few days ago and...."

"No, he didn't get our souls in the contract negotiations." Lona said gently. Honestly, the little nurse was just so nervous about everything. Of course, Elmer could be a bit jumpy as well so maybe they would be a good match, after all. And Carrie would certainly be someone safer for Elmer to be around than she was.

"Well, that's good to know." Carrie said. Looks like she couldn't delay things any longer. "Ummmm, they sent me down here to see about getting him cleaned up before they come to take him for the scan." She could feel her face turning redder and redder with each word. Okay, it wasn't like she hadn't bathed patients before but never anyone she actually KNEW!

"Carrie?" The nurse had turned bright red when she mentioned her assigned task, making Lona more than a bit nervous. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just...." Carrie forced herself to laugh slightly. "No problem. I've done this lots of times. Just need to get the water and some soap and a razor and..." She was babbling now, trying to hide her nervousness about what she was going to have to do.

"Carrie, why don't you let me take care of things here?" Lona said as she jumped up, steadying the swaying nurse a bit. No, she was not going to be letting Carrie anywhere near Elmer with a razor. He really didn't need to have to have major blood transfusions at the moment.

"Will you? You're okay with that?" Carrie sighed inwardly with relieve but didn't want to show it to Dr. Massingale. She hated that everyone knew how nervous she was and now here she had chickened out over the issue of a BATH!

"I'm fine with it. Why don't you just run along to Peds?" Lona said, shaking her head as Carrie hurried out of the room, calling a quick goodbye to Elmer over her shoulder. No, now that she had time to think about it she knew that Carrie wasn't the right one for Elmer. Entirely too nervous. She would drive him nuts with her panicking within a week.

"Well, now what am I going to do with you?" Lona said softly as she looked down at Elmer, thinking of what she had promised to do. Had they even covered bathing the patients in med school? 


	21. chapter 21

Lona shook her head a moment later. Why did it matter if bathing patents was covered in med school or not? It was just a bath, after all!  
How hard could managing a bath be? Soap, water, Elmer. Not a problem.  
"If the AMA could see you acting like this." She muttered to herself before starting to speak to Elmer. "Okay, sweetie, it looks like I'm going to have to get you cleaned up now."

Lona shook her head, feeling her face suddenly turning almost as red as Carrie's had as she spoke. Honestly, what was she letting herself get worked up about? It wasn't as if she hadn't seen Elmer without clothing before! Well, without anything but boxers, anyway. She smiled slightly as she thought of it. He really, really hadn't looked that bad without clothing, much better than you would guess he would look from first appearances, anyway. She shook her head once more, trying to force those thoughts away as she moved around the room, going into the bathroom for a moment to gather the supplies that she would need. She just hoped that Louis would take a nice, long time making arrangements for his patients.  
She really didn't want to have to explain to him why she was suddenly bathing his son.

Lona carried the basin of water back in and sat it down on the bedside table along with a washcloth, towels, soap and a razor. Now what was she supposed to do, though?

"You're losing it. You're seriously losing it." Lona muttered under her breath. "First, close and lock that door." No way did she want someone coming wandering in during this. She swiftly hurried across the room once more and fiddled with the door until she thought she would have at least a few seconds notice before someone could come barging in on them.

Okay, next check the water temperature. She smiled slightly as she felt it. Nice and warm. That ought to feel good for Elmer. "Okay,  
sweetie, I'm just going to get you cleaned up now, okay? Any time that you would like to wake up for me and help out with this, you're more than welcome to." She reached out, gently brushing his hair back from his forehead slightly. Really, he was extremely cute and he would likely make someone very happy some day. If he just wasn't so blasted young.... No,  
she wouldn't let herself think about that. Elmer needed someone else,  
someone besides her. The fact that he was in a hospital bed currently proved it.

Lona forced her thoughts away from that firmly. She would make it up to Elmer somehow, would find someone who could take care of him, who could love him, like he deserved. "Okay." She hesitated for a moment,  
scolding herself mentally for it. Really, she had seen him before and she WAS a doctor. What was the big deal? She forced herself to reach out despite her sudden embarrassment, pulling the covers back gently, and then sitting on the bed, easing Elmer up into her arms a bit as she slipped the hospital gown off. No underwear anyway. One good thing. She didn't know how she would have managed those. She eased him back down once more,  
tucking the covers around his waist, letting him have a bit of privacy.

"Okay, sweetie, I'll try to do this fast, okay? I don't want you to get cold." She felt tears welling up at the sight of the bandage on his shoulder. All her fault. "Elmer...." she whispered softly as she reached out, placing her hand over the bandage for a moment, having to close her eyes as pain washed over her. What could she really say about what he had done? Of course, she was more than grateful that she hadn't been shot but.... "Sweetie, I'm not worth it." she said quietly. "I know you think I am but I'm not. I'm mean to you and I stay locked up in that lab all the time and...." As she spoke, she forced herself to take the washcloth and dip it in the water, getting the soap and lathering it up before starting to run it over Elmer's arms. First do the arms and then the back and chest. Didn't that make the most sense?

"I don't mean to hurt you, you know." she said softly as she finished washing his arms and gently ran the towel over them to dry him.  
"I just know that you'll be better off with someone your own age, someone who.... Elmer, I'm so not the kind of person you need to get involved with, it's not even funny." She smiled slightly as she ran the washcloth over his chest now. He really, really wasn't bad looking at all. "You're going to make someone very happy someday, you know, and I hope she realizes exactly how special you are. And I hope you don't try that head stunt with her either, Elmer." Lona told him mock sternly. Lona felt a bit of an ache inside as she spoke to Elmer but she firmly forced it down. Elmer needed someone else and she was going to find that someone for him no matter what. She carefully removed the bandage, being careful to make sure that she didn't pull to hard on the skin as she did so. The wound looked fine to her, she thought after a moment, could probably even have the stitches out soon. She gently cleaned it and retrieved more bandages to cover it with before rolling Elmer onto his side and starting to gently wash his back.

"Elmer?" She called his name as she ran the washcloth over him,  
trying to massage a bit as she moved. After fast approaching forty eight hours of lying in a hospital bed, his back would have to be more than a little sore. "Elmer, does that feel better?" Why wasn't he responding in any way? Not even a twitch and she gently rubbed his back, making small circles with her fingers now to try to ease out some of the tension. Okay,  
she had felt more than a bit awkward about doing the bath when she had volunteered but she had had a bit of hope too, had thought that maybe somehow doing this for him might get through to him, might snap him out of this.

"I'm going to see if there's any lotion in here when we're through.  
Would you like that on your back?" Lona asked. Okay. top half was done.  
Time to move on to the lower half. Now this was where she knew it would get more than a bit awkward.

"Doctor, you're a doctor. It's not like he's the first man you've seen naked." Lona muttered under her breath as she moved the covers back.  
Do it fast. Just do it fast and get it over with before she burst a blood vessel from embarrassment. "Elmer, any time you want to wake up and handle this part yourself, you're more than welcome to." Did she see any sort of response, maybe a twitch of an eyelid or something? No, she sadly shook her head as she started to run the washcloth down his legs, rubbing gently as she washed his claves and feet, easing the tension also present there.

"Does that feel better?" she asked once more, trying to keep her mind off of what needed to be handled next. She forced herself after a moment's hesitation to reach out though. She had to finish this before Louis got back and if he walked in and saw her.... Well, she would never be able to explain things if he walked in on that portion of the bath.

"There. All nice and clean." Lona said a moment later as she finished, her face feeling as if it was on fire. She reached out and snagged a fresh hospital gown, easing Elmer up into her arms once more as she slipped him into it. "I'll bet you feel much better now, right?"

Okay, the next part would be more than a bit awkward as well. She stood,  
taking the water into the bathroom and changing it for clean, washing her hands and snagging some shaving foam as well as a small bottle of lotion before returning to Elmer's side.

"Elmer? I'm just going to clean your face up a bit, okay? You don't want to end up looking as scruffy as Dr. Hook, now do you?" Lona said with a soft chuckle as she put some of the foam on her fingertips,  
gently rubbing it onto his face before picking up the razor. What did she do now, though? Bathing she could work out. She did have a bit of personal experience with taking baths herself, after all. Shaving,  
though.... now would definitely be a good time for Louis to return.

"I hope you don't mind too much if this isn't the best." she muttered under her breath as she ran the razor over his face after a moment' hesitation. When she finished with his cheeks, reaching his chin,  
she paused for a moment, thinking of exactly how he handled that little scruff of facial hair before starting to slowly work once more.

"There. Not too bad." she said a couple of minutes later as she gently wiped the remainder of the foam off. She thought she had got everything right, anyway. "Now, let me get some lotion on your back."

Lona tugged the covers up to his waist once more, gently tugging the gown a bit loose in the back as she rolled him onto his side so he was facing her.  
She held a bit of the lotion in her hands for a moment to warm it before starting to run it over his back, rubbing gently but firmly to try to ease some of the tension in the muscles.

She felt the ache inside starting once more at the sight of Elmer,  
lying there so still as she rubbed his back for him. Normally he would be eating this up, basking in her attention, but now.... "I'm going to fix this, Elmer." she whispered softly, leaning down and pressing a kiss onto his forehead. "I'm going to fix this. You're going to be just fine. I promise." 


End file.
